The Role of Basic Business Skills Development and Their Influence on South African Small, Medium and Micro Enterprise Sustainability

Abstract

South African Small, Medium and Micro Enterprises (SMMEs) have received vast amounts of attention from both government and scholars over the years, mainly due to the socio-economic value they add to the national economy. Notwithstanding the importance of these business entities to the South African economy, prior research suggests that South African SMMEs have one of the worst sustainability rates in the world; mainly attributable to the influence of unmanaged economic factors. Included in these economic factors is the matter of a scarcity of skills, particularly that of basic business skills. Though limited research has been conducted on the individual business skills which require development in South African SMMEs the perception was formulated that the development of basic business skills in these business entities may have a positive influence on their attainment of key businesses objectives in the foreseeable future. As such, empirical research was performed which fell within the positivistic research paradigm; data were gleaned from South African SMME management through means of a questionnaire. Stemming from the results, it was found that although there is a dire need for the development of basic business skills in South African SMMEs. It can be argued that some basic business skills were more important to develop than others as only a few had a positive influence on the attainment of business objectives.

Analysis of the Implementation of Internal Controls Based on the Coso Framework (Study on MSMEs in North SULAWESI)

“…This condition has an impact on achieving compliance goals because the absence of financial reports has an impact on fulfilling MSME tax obligations. Weaknesses in implementing internal control caused by human resources not understanding accounting were also found by Wandini & Budiasih (2017) and Bruwer et al (2019). Disobedience to regulations is a factor causing problems (Gramling & Schneider, 2018) and failure in MSMEs (Umrani & Johl, 2016).…”

“…One of the factors causing weaknesses in internal control is the human resource factor in producing reports required by management (Wandini & Budiasih, 2017). Lack of accounting background causes weaknesses in providing reports to management (Bruwer et al, 2019).…”

Analysis of the Implementation of Internal Controls Based on the Coso Framework (Study on MSMEs in North SULAWESI)

“…This condition has an impact on achieving compliance goals because the absence of financial reports has an impact on fulfilling MSME tax obligations. Weaknesses in implementing internal control caused by human resources not understanding accounting were also found by Wandini & Budiasih (2017) and Bruwer et al (2019). Disobedience to regulations is a factor causing problems (Gramling & Schneider, 2018) and failure in MSMEs (Umrani & Johl, 2016).…”

“…One of the factors causing weaknesses in internal control is the human resource factor in producing reports required by management (Wandini & Budiasih, 2017). Lack of accounting background causes weaknesses in providing reports to management (Bruwer et al, 2019).…”

A Multi-Dimensional Hybrid Learning Environment for Business Education: A Knowledge Dynamics Perspective

“…Moreover, most of the current studies on BE focus on a traditional course context, individual disciplines or technical skills, and not on a holistic business knowledge pedagogy which would support competences such as critical thinking, digital competences, learningto-learn competences and inspiration for growth [3,23,24]. A few papers, indeed, deal with the topic of development of business competences for students by also considering the requirements of the contemporary BE [2,23,[25][26][27]. There is a lack of studies, however, that approach an HLE for BE by taking into account knowledge as a result of learning in its "full spectrum of aspects" [23].…”